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Chapter 183: Trading Deadline, the Spoiler Wizards (5K chapters, begging for monthly subscription!)
The celebrity weekend ended successfully.

Bobby Marks from ESPN revealed the details of the labor-management negotiations to the world at the first opportunity, and with the title "Where did the players win?" he explained to the fans the differences between the old and new labor-management agreements.

First is the most important basketball-related income part, which is the proportion distribution of BRI.

Although in the old labor agreement, the players' BRI accounted for 57%, in the labor negotiations before the Dallas incident, Max mentioned that the players' union, led by Fisher, was even mentally prepared to reduce this ratio to 52%.
However.
In Dallas, Qin Yue not only fought hard to obtain a 54% BRI distribution ratio for the players, but also, according to the new labor agreement, the bosses also need to take out 1% of their BRI income to establish a welfare pool for retired players and lower-level players in the league.

In this regard, Qin Yue gave the reason: "Didn't these players sweat and bleed for you?"

You know, in the past, the league has always pursued a policy where active players support retired players, and star players support middle and lower-level players.

In other words, using the capitalist model that the wool comes from the sheep, about 1% of the players' BRI income is intercepted to establish a welfare pool.

But it's different now.

Although according to the new labor agreement, players will still intercept 1% of BRI income to build a welfare pool, the bosses also have to take out 1% of BRI income to ensure the welfare benefits of retired players and the majority of middle and lower-level players in the league.

Secondly, labor and capital will jointly establish a salary cap regulatory body.

With the help of this agency, the league can adjust the annual salary cap and luxury line with the consent of both labor and management to ensure that the prescribed BRI does not exceed the budget.

Max commented on this initiative in the article: "Now, everything will be more transparent. Players can use the supervision of the salary cap to determine whether the owners of each team are really losing money, and the owners of each team can also use dialogue to solve the problem of insufficient income in certain seasons."

In Max's view, this is an innovative move that can effectively resolve many potential conflicts.

For example, if the league does not increase the salary cap in the 10/11 season, according to the agency's calculations,
Then the players and the boss can sit down and discuss it.

Instead of waiting for the salary cap to increase and then the bosses complaining about their high expenses, or the league arbitrarily cutting the salary cap for the next few seasons, causing dissatisfaction among the players, as in the past.

In addition, the establishment of this organization not only advocates solving problems through dialogue, but also greatly ensures the players' own rights.

Because players who gain more say will inevitably have more advantages in future labor-management negotiations.

Max is well aware that this is a voice that the players have never had before.

It is also the first time that players have truly participated in the future development and planning of the NBA.

In Qin Yue's previous life, although the league would introduce similar salary cap regulatory agreements as NBA revenue declined year by year, the right to speak that Qin Yue fought for the players in Dallas was obviously a more powerful version of the agreement in later generations.

Because compared with the same period in history, players can only passively accept the reduction or increase of the salary cap.

Qin Yue not only won the players the right to retaliate against the management in the agreement.

In addition, as players will participate in the future development of the NBA, in addition to playing basketball, many superstars will surely increase their motivation to expand the league's territory.

After all, as long as they can make the pie bigger together and bring more revenue to the NBA, the league's future salary cap will also increase.

This was the main reason why the capital representatives, led by old Bass, agreed to set up the agency.

In Dallas, old Buss keenly perceived Qin Yue's attitude of advocating dialogue to solve problems under his tough appearance, as well as his ambition to lead the entire alliance out of difficulties by joining forces to make the pie bigger.

As the most successful owner in the league's history, Buss knows better than anyone that the NBA will only get better and better if it finds ways to work together to make the pie bigger, rather than constantly putting extreme pressure on players.

Of course, in this labor-management negotiation, in addition to the general direction issues, the management also had a dialogue with the players about the current increasing cost of competing for the championship year by year.

In this regard, Qin Yue and other superstars, knowing that the current league does need to formulate corresponding rules to fix those shitty codes, did not make things difficult for the owners of the teams.

Therefore, the supplementary agreement on the Messiah Clauses, the modification of the Bird Clause, the amendment of the sign-and-trade system and the formulation of a super luxury tax were also reached by consensus between labor and management during this negotiation.

According to the new version of the labor agreement, the validity period of the big and small Messiah clauses will be extended to seven years.

Simply put, as long as a player can meet the requirements of the Messiah clause in the first seven years of his career, he can sign a maximum salary contract with his parent team that accounts for 30% or 35% of the team's salary cap when his contract expires.

In addition, the Little Messiah Clause can be combined with the NBA's veteran years when renewing the contract.
In the eyes of small-market team owners, extending the validity period of the big and small Messiah clauses will help them retain superstars in their teams.

For example, LeBron James meets the Little Messiah Clause (formerly the Rose Clause).

Since James will meet both the NBA's seven-year veteran period and the Little Messiah clause when his contract expires this summer, if he chooses to renew his contract with the Cavaliers, he can get a super maximum salary of 35% of the team's salary cap in advance.

In Qin Yue’s opinion, this is a very reasonable patch.

As for the amendment to the Bird Clause, the player representatives headed by Qin Yue had no objection.

Although the salary increase rate of the Bird clause will be reduced to 8% under the new agreement, this is a decrease that all players expected given the current average league income.

In fact, in Qin Yue's eyes, what may really change the future NBA landscape is the revision of the sign-first-then-trade gameplay.

Under the new agreement, players who sign and trade with their parent teams will be limited to three years when renewing their contracts, and their salary increases will only be 4.5%.

what does this mean?
Let’s use James as an example here.

If James wants to leave the Cavaliers by signing and then trading after his contract expires this summer, the most intuitive contract amount would be:

Under the old agreement, James could get a five-year, $1.3 million super-max salary from the new team through a sign-and-trade deal. Under the new agreement, he can only get a three-year new contract with a total value of only $6300 million.

"In the past, the sign-and-trade policy was to keep the spark for the parent team, but in reality, it was because you superstars were unwilling to take a pay cut."

Sterling rarely said something that Qin Yue agreed with during the labor negotiations: "In my opinion, if a player really wants to leave a spark for his parent team by signing first and then trading, then he should not expect this way of leaving to get him the salary he should have received."

In short, in this labor-management negotiation that advocates dialogue to solve problems.
Quoting the official statement of the league afterwards - after frank communication between the two sides and a full exchange of views on issues of mutual concern, the talks not only increased the understanding between labor and management, but the two sides also reached consensus on many core issues.

Online, fans who learned that the potential for a league shutdown had been completely resolved through this negotiation were undoubtedly the happiest group of people.

Especially at the end of this article "Where did the players win", Max did not forget to say: "In order to continue playing the basketball they have been playing for a long time, the players' performance is positive.

Led by Messiah, they successfully won the right to speak and a higher share of the BRI (compared to previous concessions).

Moreover, the players successfully prevented a possible lockout with the Messiah's mediation. "

At any time, fans are the group of people who least want the NBA to be shut down due to the failure of labor negotiations.

Therefore, compared with the BRI share or the benefits that Qin Yue actively fought for the majority of middle and lower-level players, when fans learned about what kind of struggle the players had waged in Dallas in order to be able to play basketball, the image of a group of superstars headed by Qin Yue instantly became taller.

So, what is the price?

the answer is.
Compared to 1964, the league and team owners even had to thank Qin Yue instead.

The New York Times did the math for each team in the league the next day.

If the owners of the league's teams choose to resolve the issue through dialogue with the players, they will only lose a little face and substance.

If the NBA is forced to interrupt this season or is suspended in the future, the losses to the league's teams will be an astronomical figure of more than one billion US dollars.

Qin Yue knew very well that in history, the extreme pressure initiated by the owners of many small-market teams was itself an impulsive act carried out without considering the consequences.

Moreover, in that extreme pressure campaign, those small-market team owners who took the lead in inciting the league and believed that players should be sanctioned through a lockout, except Jordan, will all be kicked out one after another in the future.

Now, with the NBA's prospects brighter than in the same period in history, Qin Yue threatened to strike, allowing those team owners who are still sober to clearly see the losses that the interruption of the season will bring to them.
Considering that the league will still have to rely on Qin Yue to make money in the future, the bosses of the league's teams are destined to greet this league flag with a smile no matter how much they hate him.

After all, who said that Qin Yue could only print money for the Warriors?

Could it be that when Qin Yue led the Warriors to play away games, the visiting teams didn't make money from it?

You know, many teams in small markets look forward to playing against the Warriors at home every year. If a team's original ticket price is $100, then under the amplification of Qin Yue's star effect, when playing against the Warriors, the ticket price of this team will often rise to $300.

February.

Qin Yue, who returned to Oakland from Dallas, welcomed the annual final journey with the Warriors.

The Warriors, who intended to break the Bulls' myth this season, unexpectedly lost two games in late February.

At the Oracle Arena, they had defeated the Lakers in the previous three encounters, but unfortunately they faced Kobe, who was like a god descending from heaven.

Throughout the game, Kobe scored a total of 49 points for the Lakers, and his performance can only be described as success no matter how he shot.

There is no way the Warriors can maintain their excellent form every game in the long 82-game regular season.

Therefore, Qin Yue had nothing to say about this defeat.

As for the Warriors’ upset loss to the Raptors in late February?

In the snowy Toronto, the Warriors' team-wide poor shooting was certainly the main reason for their upset loss.

But in the game, Curry, who replaced Nash as the team's starting player, made a total of 8 turnovers on the court, which also made him the target of collective criticism from Warriors fans after the game.

At the large-scale criticism meeting after the game, Warriors fans who couldn't understand why Curry always lost the ball inexplicably even launched a public vote online called "Should Stephen Curry take off his No. 30 jersey?"

As a result, what made Curry feel heartbroken was that more than 80% of Warriors fans hoped that he would no longer wear the No. 30 jersey.

Qin Yue was puzzled and asked, "Why is it only 80%? Don't the remaining 20% have keyboards to vote?"

As a person who has been through this, Qin Yue knows that even in the future, Curry's playing style will have nothing to do with stability.

Therefore, what’s more, at this stage where he has to pay tuition fees?

However, when criticizing Kuli, Qin Yue would not show mercy to his nephew.

"Stephen, if you give up the ball like this again, I will kick your ass hard, understand?"

"Oh"

The young Curry has gradually become accustomed to this way of getting along with Qin Yue.

Although Qin Yue was always very strict with himself, the more Curry got to know Qin Yue, the more he knew that Qin Yue was only strict with people he cared about.

For example, Danny Green, who has been abandoned by Qin Yue this season.

Nowadays, Qin Yue’s requirements for Green have been so low that it is enough as long as he does not pick up things on the ground to eat.

In February, the Warriors unexpectedly lost two games, but in the eyes of the world, relying on the good foundation they had laid before, there is still a great chance that they can break the Bulls' myth this season.

However.
In February of this year, Qin Yue and the Warriors were no longer the protagonists.

Because before the trade deadline, teams around the league that were busy strengthening their rosters stole the attention that should have belonged to the Warriors.

The Magic traded Rashard Lewis to the Wizards for Gilbert Arenas.

In this life, "General" Arenas is lucky.

Because last season, the Cavaliers traded Iverson to the Wizards in exchange for Jamison, which triggered a series of chain reactions.

During Arenas' recovery period, Iverson successfully recruited Crittenton, who was originally going to have a gun incident with Arenas this season, as his younger brother.
So, as Iverson was preparing to return to the Philadelphia 76ers on a minimum salary last summer, Crittenton, who decided to follow in his big brother's footsteps, took the initiative to apply for a trade from the Wizards management, hoping that the Wizards would allow him to reunite with his big brother Iverson in Philadelphia.

Wizards management agreed to the deal.

Then, without Crittenton, the villain in Qin Yue's memory who was sentenced to twenty-three years in prison for murder and drug trafficking in later generations, the gun-carrying incident in history naturally did not break out.

Arenas thus escaped.

However, after returning from a serious injury, his strength was no longer comparable to that of the past, so the Wizards management officially decided to give up and rebuild.

Magic general manager Otis Smith has always favored Arenas.

Smith wants to bet that Arenas still has gas in the tank, and with the growth of Connaught Lee, Lewis has gradually become a redundant existence in this Magic lineup.
So, after hitting it off with the Wizards management, Smith decisively sent Lewis and a future first-round draft pick of the team to the Wizards in exchange for Arenas.

And what about the Wizards?

They are now only interested in giving up and rebuilding, and have become the biggest variable before this year's trade deadline.

In February, in addition to sending Arenas away, the Wizards also accepted a future first-round draft pick from the Mavericks and traded Caron Butler and Drew Gooden to the Mavericks for Eric Dampier and Marquis Daniels.

Interestingly, after trading for Dampier, the Wizards immediately pardoned Dampier using the amnesty clause.

Historically, if Qin Yue remembered correctly, the Wizards would have pardoned Big Z, who was traded to the Wizards, in the deal involving Jamison and Big Z, and allowed Big Z to return to the Cavaliers after being traded.

But now, in this era without the "Big Z Clause",
With the Wizards management pardoning Dampier, and Dampier clearly stated in an interview that he would return to the Mavericks after the trade cooling-off period.
The top leaders of the alliance suddenly realized that there was such a BUG in their pile of shitty codes.

If nothing unexpected happens, the "Big Z Clause" in this life will be replaced by the "Dampier Clause".

In fact, as early as that year, the Cavaliers used Eric Snow to perform similar operations and reminded the league's top management.

Unfortunately, Snow's influence was not enough to make the league realize what kind of BUG they had left in the current version of the rules, so it was not until the Wizards pardoned Dampier that the league's top management reacted.

Qin Yue knew very well that after these two transactions, the Wizards, who had no choice but to give up, had successfully disrupted the situation of this season.

First of all, regardless of whether Arenas, who was seriously injured and out for two consecutive seasons, has any gas left in the tank, under Stan Van Gundy's system, his ability to shoot three-pointers will definitely allow him to perfectly integrate into this star-studded Magic team.

Secondly, given that the Magic already have "Martial Saint" Jackson and "Urban Cannon" Turkoglu on the front line, Magic general manager Smith has no problem understanding the team's lineup.

Compared to the increasingly useless Lewis, Arenas is indeed the player they urgently need.

As for Butler and Gooden, who the Wizards assisted the Mavericks during the team's rebuilding process?

In March, Qin Yue, who is determined to lead the Warriors to break the Bulls' myth, will soon experience firsthand how this increasingly complete Dallas Mavericks team is different from the past.

Because on March 3, the Warriors returned to their home court, and their first opponent in March was the Mavericks, who had just strengthened their team through a trade.

And in a trance, looking at the Mavericks' roster
Qin Yue discovered that, except for Tyson Chandler, the Mavericks had basically assembled the championship team that they remembered slaughtering the Lion Camel Ridge with.

"Fate is really something beyond words."

That day, Qin Yue sighed silently in his heart.

……

PS: I am physically exhausted today, so I can only update 5000 words first.

①: Historically, the BRI share ratio that the players' union finally compromised on was 49% to 51%.

②: The so-called veteran years refer to the provisions of the NBA's maximum salary clause. For players with 0-6 years of experience, the maximum salary contract can only account for a maximum of 25% of the team's salary cap. For players with 7 to 9 years of experience, the maximum salary contract can only account for a maximum of 30% of the team's salary cap. Only players with more than 10 years of experience can account for 35% of the team's salary cap.

(End of this chapter)